


The Clue

by rebecca_selene



Series: Epistolary Encounters [2]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/F, Infidelity
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-19
Updated: 2018-12-19
Packaged: 2019-09-22 14:35:01
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,861
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17061584
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rebecca_selene/pseuds/rebecca_selene
Summary: Even Luna’s Christmas cards cause havoc on Hermione’s emotions.





	The Clue

**Author's Note:**

> written for:  
>      -[](https://adventdrabbles.dreamwidth.org/profile)[ **adventdrabbles**](https://adventdrabbles.dreamwidth.org/) prompt 17: [Making love by the fire](https://imgur.com/qxjRR4F)  
>      -[](https://fffc.dreamwidth.org/profile)[ **fffc**](https://fffc.dreamwidth.org/) Advent Calendar Day 17: [snowman kid on adult’s shoulders](https://prisca.dreamwidth.org/file/101788.jpg)  
>      -[](https://picture-prompt-fun.dreamwidth.org/profile)[ **picture_prompt_fun**](https://picture-prompt-fun.dreamwidth.org/) Advent Calendar Day 17: [Christmas card](https://picturepromptfun-mod.dreamwidth.org/file/103852.jpg)  
>      -my [](https://ladiesbingo.dreamwidth.org/profile)[**ladiesbingo**](https://ladiesbingo.dreamwidth.org/) [Round 6 card](https://rebecca-selene.dreamwidth.org/111588.html) prompt: Simply Irresistible: Sex God (or Goddess)

When the owl arrived with Luna’s Christmas card, Hermione was having brunch with Harry and Ron. She instantly recognized her name in Luna's scrawl and tried to casually tuck the card in with her other paperwork on the kitchen table while cooing over the owl, but Ron glanced at it. "Oi, that's from Luna, isn't it?" He reached for the card.

Hermione's heart skipped. She waved his words away. "Oh, yes, looks like another Christmas card to add to my pile. I'll look at it later."

"She sent me one too," Ron said, ignoring Hermione's hint to leave her stuff alone and slitting open the envelope. Harry nodded in agreement. "I want to see if you got the same strangeness we did."

"Why would Luna send me anything different from you two?" Hermione asked weakly as Ron slipped out the card. But she knew what kind of words Luna wrote to her and only her…

Her cheeks already flushing, not seeing any way to protest without bringing even more attention to herself, she braced herself to finally have the confrontation with Ron she'd been dreading, to finally have everything out in the open.

Ron's eyes scanned the card, and then he handed it to Harry. He smiled and shook his head. "Yup, that's our Luna."

Harry shrugged and passed the card to Hermione. Trembling with unspent adrenaline, she barely noticed the cartoonish image on the front before opening it to read one of Luna's shortest and most ambiguous notes:

> _The clue is on the cover._

Brow furrowed, infinitely relieved (but also, she hated to admit, the slightest disappointed) that Luna's words weren't scandalous, Hermione examined the card's front more closely. It depicted a snowman with a second smaller snowman on its shoulders.

"What does that mean?" Hermione pondered.

"Who knows." Ron grabbed the last piece of toast just as Harry reached for it. Harry pulled back and shook his head when Ron offered to give it up. "Maybe she wants a piggy back ride. Or to give one," he continued as he cut the toast and gave Harry half anyway.

Harry took the toast with a smile. "Or maybe she's telling us she's pregnant."

Hermione blinked, and the world went fuzzy for a moment. Pregnant? By whom? Was this card Luna's way of breaking things off with her to be with…whoever else there was?

"You all right there, Hermione?" Harry asked. "You've gone pale. Did you eat enough?" He looked ready to regurgitate the last bit of toast if she needed it.

Hermione forced a smile. "Yes, fine, thanks. Just need some tea." She stood and busied herself with the teapot to calm her thoughts. She and Luna had planned to meet that night; she would find out what the clue was for then, and it would do no good to speculate or try to reason out Luna's logic beforehand.

By the time the tea had finished brewing, she was able to sit back down and pour them all a cup with only a minor, easily hidden tremble in her hand.

*****

Hermione's doorbell rang well after dinnertime. Though they could have met with each other anytime and passed it off as friends spending time together, there was something more genuine about sneaking around to be their true selves with each other.

Besides, Hermione wouldn't complain when late evenings turned into all nights.

Luna entered Hermione's apartment the way she'd entered her life and her bed: like she owned it, had every right to it, wanted it for herself. The scent of ocean and salt wafted after her, filling Hermione's senses with Luna. Despite the anxiety she'd been trying to hide, she shivered expectantly.

When Hermione turned from closing and locking the door, she was surprised to see Luna's big eyes right in front of her. She retreated reflexively, her back against the door, and Luna stepped forward, crowding Hermione, invading her space. "Hello, love," she whispered, and just when Hermione thought their lips would touch, Luna twirled around and went into the living room.

 _Well,_ Hermione thought, desire coiling in her abdomen, _if Luna is planning to break things off, she has a funny way of showing it._

Not that the thought reassured Hermione much. Funny was Luna's way of doing everything, after all.

She followed Luna into the living room. Luna had discarded her coat onto the couch and knelt in front of the crackling fire. She turned her head at Hermione's approach. "Strip."

Another sharp pull of desire bolted through Hermione at the command in Luna's tone. Still… "About your card—"

Luna waved a hand, a smile hovering on her lips. "Eager, are you? Yes, yes, we'll get to that, don't worry. But first, strip."

Hermione obeyed. She could do nothing else in Luna's presence. Luna melted her the way no one even in her fantasies could.

"Come by the fire." Luna patted the space next to her.

Hermione sat cross-legged, the warmth of the flames heating her bare skin from without as much as Luna heated her from within. "Aren't you a little overdressed?" she asked, eyebrow raised.

Luna smiled and pulled her dress over her head. Hermione leaned over to help Luna shimmy out of her undergarments, but Luna batted her hands away. "So impatient," she chided mildly.

Hermione watched the play of firelight on Luna's pale skin. She wanted to run her tongue over Luna's hipbone, the curve of her torso, the hollow between her clavicles. The urge pulled at her, a hint of desperation at its edge from her suspicions about the Christmas card. But every time she reached out while Luna threw aside her articles of clothing, Luna stopped her before they could touch.

"You're breaking up with me, aren't you?"

Luna stared at her. Her lips worked for a moment before she said, "What tricksy nargle could make you believe that while I'm sitting here naked on your rug?"

"Your card…the child…" Hermione swallowed and tried again. "You said the child on the front of your card was a clue. I thought you must be…pregnant…by someone…"

Luna tilted her face toward the ceiling and closed her eyes. She exhaled slow and long while Hermione's heart twisted. Luna wasn't acting like that interpretation was correct, but the doubt continued to gnaw at Hermione's insides.

"That is a very interesting conclusion," Luna finally said. The corners of her lips twitched. "And one you are very wrong about."

Hermione remembered to breathe. "You're not leaving me?"

"Of course not, silly. I have plans for you tonight, and they do not involve children." She snorted at the idea.

Feeling like a weight had lifted from her body, Hermione leaned her relief-weakened muscles to kiss Luna. "No." The sharp word snapped Hermione back to her place. The game was on again.

"Lie back, as close to the fire as you can get." Hermione lay back.

"Close your eyes." Hermione closed her eyes.

Now, in a whisper, so close Hermione could feel Luna's breath on her cheek, "Do you trust me?"

"Yes." Hermione’s ears strained to catch the slightest sound of what Luna was doing.

"Are you comfortable?"

"Yes."

"If you want me to stop, just open your eyes." Before Hermione could wonder about this, Luna said, _"Petrificus Totalus!"_ And suddenly Hermione couldn't move. She fought down her momentary panic at the odd sensation, tested that she could move her eyes, and waited for Luna to continue.

And waited. And waited. She heard nothing. She began to sweat from the heat of the fire and her growing anxiety. And then something soft brushed her lips. Luna's fingers. Hermione nearly jumped at the touch, but her bespelled body didn't let her. She felt everything Luna wanted her to, the exact pressure she applied, the tease of a soft caress or ache of a rough touch, and Hermione could do nothing but feel the tightening desire in her nerves.

Luna ran her hot palms down Hermione's sides, her legs, fingers slipping easily over Hermione's sweat-coated skin. Hermione breathed deeply, trying to control her reaction even though she knew it was pointless where Luna was concerned.

Luna's touch left Hermione. She ached to stretch to Luna, to touch herself, something to relieve the pressure. A groan of disappointment rose and died in her bound throat.

A hot puff of breath heated a patch of skin on the fleshy part below her ribs, followed by a biting square of cold. Hermione seized internally. The shock on that tiny area spread through her body, to the tips of her nipples and right between her legs. The square object was removed, but tiny frigid trickles ran down her side.

Ice. Luna was touching Hermione’s immobilized, overheated body with ice.

Later, Hermione would marvel at how wickedly ingenious Luna was, but now, her mind in lust-fueled turmoil, all she could focus on was where the ice would land next. Luna paused at varying intervals between each location, making Hermione tense at the unpredictability. Luna ran the cube between Hermione’s breasts, parted Hermione’s legs to get at her inner thighs, trickled water over her throat, returned to her hip. Once she set the ice directly on Hermione’s nipple and after several moments replaced it with the wet heat of her mouth. Hermione nearly came right then and there.

Luna left Hermione panting, touching her with neither ice nor body. Tears leaked from Hermione’s eyes, the only physical reaction she could give to Luna’s painstaking, pleasurable torture. Save for the remnants of icy water tattooed on her skin, Hermione’s body was on fire, itching to come, aching to move, every nerve twitching. And then she felt a coldness between her legs, at her core where she was hottest, rubbing gently over her slit and clit, around to her inner thighs and back again, lazy circles that left cold droplets in their wake to startle her skin back to hypersensitivity over and over again.

Hermione’s entire focus centered on the touch of that ice cube, spiraling her into an almost mindless frenzy. After a long, agonizing minute, it left her body. The contrasting heat of Luna’s lips on her clit made Hermione’s mind explode into a million shattered pieces of herself. If she could move she would have bucked and arched her back to ride the waves of pleasure coursing through her body, but under the spell she could only lie still and take it all, her body pulsing through the intensity of her orgasm.

She didn’t know how much time passed before she realized she could move of her own accord, though her limp muscles did not care to do so. She cracked open her eyes and found Luna lying next to her, gently brushing her fingers over Hermione’s curls.

“I’m not leaving you.”

Hermione realized what an idiot she’d been to ever think that. She planned to make it up to Luna as soon as the strength returned to her limbs. Her voice cracked when she tried to speak, but she managed to get out an emotion-filled _“Luna.”_

Luna leaned in and finally, for the first time that night, let Hermione kiss her.  



End file.
